Microsoft takes the honours in BEST Employers 2008/09 survey of top companies to work for

The announcement was made by CRF in Johannesburg last night and is the outcome of an international HR Benchmark™ research process which underpins the BEST Employers™ South Africa project managed by CRF's Publishing Manager, Samantha Crous. 50 of SA's leading companies were officially accredited as BEST Employers™ for 2008/09 by CRF on the evening.

The top 10 BEST Employers™ this year are:

1. Microsoft (up from fourth place last year)
2. ABSA (also second last year)
3. Shell (last year's winner)
4. Pfizer Laboratories (up from eighth place last year)
5. Ernst & Young (up from 10th place last year)
6. Siemens Limited
7. South African Breweries
8. Cisco Systems
9. Unilever, and
10. Werksmans Inc.

The following companies were accredited on the night (outside of Top 10, in alphabetical order) are: Beyond Outsourcing, BHP Billiton, British American Tobacco (BEST Performance by a 1st time participant), Cadiz Holdings Ltd, Cashbuild, Cell C (Pty) Ltd, City Of Johannesburg, Coca-Cola, Dell Computers SA, Discovery, Draftfcb SA, Edcon, Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs (ENS) Ericsson SA (Most Improved Employer), First National Bank, Gold Fields Limited, Hetzner (Pty) Ltd, the Industrial Development Corporation, Levi Strauss, L'Oreal South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Louis Group, Matrix Vehicle Tracking, Metropolitan Group Empowerment & Corporate Affairs, Missing Link, Mr Price Group, MTN SA, Nampak, Rectron (Pty) Ltd, SA National Roads Agency, SA Tourism Safcor Panalpina, Safripol (Pty) Ltd, sanofi-aventis south africa (pty) ltd, SAP Africa (Pty) Ltd Sentech, Spartan (Pty) Ltd, Telkom SA Ltd, Total SA (Pty) Ltd, Tsogo Sun Group and Vodacom SA (Pty) Ltd - To view the employer profiles of all accredited BEST Employers™ visit www.bestcompaniestoworkfor.co.za

The 2008/09 BEST Employers™ awards event, held at the Venue at Melrose Arch, also marked the launch of CRF's annual BEST Employers™ book and website.

Describing the event as “a niche, HR best practice celebration”, General Manager Johann Labuschagne reminded the audience of the awards international status. The annual research process is conducted in nine other countries outside of SA - the UK, Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Spain, China and Switzerland.

“Worldwide, the aim is to research, accredit and laud the BEST (or Top) Employers in the country each year with a view to improving the HR function within companies that participate so they are in a competitively advantageous position to effectively manage, develop, attract and retain talent every year.”

He said CRF, its partners: the Institute of People Management (IPM), the SA Institute of Management (SAIM), the Institute of Directors (IoD), the Businesswomen's Association of SA (BWA) and the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI) and participating companies were proud to contribute to the growth and development of the HR industry through knowledge sharing and the continuous benchmarking of employer practices.

“BEST Employers has grown from a project based on qualitative peer-review research methodology into an employer brand development project, one that is based on objective quantitative research, with some qualitative aspects for additional insight.”

Pointing to developments in the process over the past three years, he said this had included the introduction of HR Benchmark™, new research methodology and CRF's International accreditation of HR best practice.

According to Samantha Crous, the accreditation Quality Seal is well known internationally and is an important employer branding tool for participating companies.

Says Crous: “This year there is a new look and feel to our annual publication and our new 2008/09 website will once again profile accredited companies online, for one year.

“CRF has worked steadily toward the development of the appropriate tools with which companies can leverage their excellence as employers. The attraction and retention of key skills and top talent is of such importance that we've ensured the country's BEST Employers are visible, marketed by CRF and in turn given a set of tools they can use to market themselves.

“In line with this client strategy, we have introduced, for the first time this year, the Accreditation Marketing Toolkit which is designed specifically to ensure that successful companies have the appropriate communications guidelines on how to build on their employer brand in the SA market.”

Labuschagne revealed that the multi-layered approach to strategically building employer brand and its visibility had been developed by CRF International in response to employer needs and the challenges created by the changing face of the International talent market.

Elaborating on how CRF operates within four tiers to partner with companies he said, “Firstly we compile the research in the HR Benchmark survey into a statistical comparative format. This report, which you receive each year allows comparative analyses of HR policies and practices relative to the SA average. This assists you in making adjustments to your people management strategy and to keep one step ahead in the war for talent.

“Secondly, companies that reach the require benchmark score in the HR Benchmark are awarded the BEST Employer accreditation or quality seal to use for a one year period. It is renewable each year.”

He also revealed that a marketing toolkit has been designed by Chillibush Inroads, together with CRF, to assist companies in leveraging the annually awarded accreditation. “This toolkit must be taken back and given to your investor relations, marketing, communications and PR practitioners so they can in turn strategise the internal and external communication of this accreditation.”

Referring to the annual book and website as a third tier, he said they would enable CRF “to the first-level marketing of your success in this project, on your behalf to key markets for one year.”

The website has seen over 140 percent growth in hits since last year and the more than one million hits were from around the world.

The fourth tier, he said, was a partnership with Business Report and publications such as HR Future to afford companies the opportunity to leverage the accreditation in the annually produced supplement.

“This project is a culmination of the hard work of not only CRF, but of industry experts, academics and stalwarts,” he concluded.


About CRF
CRF is an international publishing company that conducts research into best business practice in ten countries on three continents, with a goal to identify and certify (accredit) the top performers in HR, Strategy and Leadership.

Says Crous, “Within the SA market, CRF SA is the only business-to-business research-based publisher that is an ideal business research and communications partner to corporate SA.

“Through participation in our HR, Leadership and Strategy research-based publishing projects, companies have access to 3 sets of exclusive comparative data within these areas on an annual basis, as well as a 3-tiered communication campaign to market and publicise their success to key stakeholders within these critical business areas. The three-tier campaign consists of the CRF Quality Seal (Accreditation), CRF Publication and Media Partner Publication/s”

CRF works closely with leading, local research partners on each specific topic to ensure the quality management and implementation of all its projects, which culminate in an extensive benchmark report and the exclusive CRF Quality Seal.

In conjunction with key media partners, CRF informs specific target groups about the achievements of these high-performing organisations, through exclusive publications and events.

The recognition of achievement and the public relations' spin-off from these projects offer a strong reward to the selected companies, and act as an incentive and inspiration for (future) staff, investors, clients and all other stakeholders alike.


Written by Loraine Tullecan for the BEST Employers™ supplement in Business Report, Friday, 15 August 2008.